Was reading Cameron's post on Heat and bass mortality at this time of the year.

Then was reading Tim Cooks recommended summer procedures.

Would giving a team or person a one pound weigh-in bonus be incentive for teams or individuals to have a Oxygen system if feesible, and or, all the other items needed to keep fish alive during a tourney, needle, Livewell additive, and ice?

Seems easy to do, boat checks are always done, those who want the bonus will simply show that they have all the items when livewell checks are done to earn that one pound bonus.

It seems that dead fish penalties aren't enough to discourage how some take care of their fish, so maybe rewarding those that do would encourage others to follow suit.

Any ideas or thoughts.

Although this is a great idea there are a few fisherman who do not take the time to prepare for fish care during a tourny. Those with and without oxygen systems in there livewells still do not bring enough ice to keep the temps down (65 to 70 degree F) to the required temps throughout the day. You generally need 5 to 8 bags of ice and plenty of Catch and Release or Please Release Me and possibly 3% hydrogen Paroxcide to keep the fish from dying during transport. There are also alot of toury anglers who do not know the proper procedure for fizzing fish and alot of time will do more harm than good.

It should be required to show these items during check in and maybe a bonus if they weigh in 5 fish that are not struggling to survive or are dying or dead. JMHO for what it is worth !!!

Very Good points.
Also, some boats have very good standard systems. Nothing extra special, so they really don't need an oxygen system. I agree that most anglers really need to be aware of what's happening to their fish. Fish caught deep are tricky to keep alive but so can shallow fish caught in the hotter water. There are so many different things to consider to help keep them alive and I would hope that the Dead Fish penalty would be sufficient to keep guys "motivated" and plan ahead. BUT sometimes it's not.

I have gone to the extreme of buying a cheap minnow bucket battery aerator for use in the weighin bags for some of the not well run tournaments/weigh-in's. I also got some of the Please Release Me smaller tablets for the weigh-in bags. Personally I can't afford to loose any weight ( I might end up in-the-hole if I owe them weight. )
I even bought an Oxygenator and added it with the rest of my Aerators/Recirculators/Ice etc...

I'm all for fish care, but I don't like bonus weight for live fish. I much prefer penalties for dead ones.

True example from about 1984 (before we had a 5 bass limit)

My partner and I fished an Open on Lake Belton during early summer. We came in with 5 fish that weighed X. Another team had 7 keepers (allowed at that time) that weighed a couple of ounces less than our 5, but... the tournament was awarding 2 ounces extra weight for each live bass and those 4 bonus ounces knocked us out of First and into Second. Even though we had more weight and 0 dead fish.

calif has put a 4hour limit on tournaments since the 90s Seems to be working, fairly well, but agreed, ice, stay alive, salt, and keep recirculationg and adding new water all day is about all most of us can do. As for fizzing, if you dont know the spot to hit, DONT DO IT it can cause more damage than not doing it.

A 1 lb. penalty would raise some eyebrows at the professional level, seeing what kind of $$$ it would potentially cost them, but like you say at our level what would be the stimulus ? I believe education and good old peer pressure are going to have to do it at the club level. At say the regional level, Bass Champs, WTTT, etc.. The stiffer penalty would work IMO. But education would have to be paramount. Like I have been saying all along, fish care classes, even at the club level is the answer. Like stated above, learning the fizzing technique before application is vital. Applying the science already given to us is vital. But getting the hardheads who think they know it all when a better and more feasable/efficient science based information is right there in front of their face to change their minds is even MORE vital. And in the end, if WE don't protect the resource, who in the world is going to. WE , the tournament angler is going to have to step up to the plate and say enough is enough. Either take care of your fish to fight another day, or you don't fish the tournament. Now mind you, some mortality is going to happen. That is the nature of the beast with fishing in general, much less tournaments. But with proper education everyone wins. Like the dock project we hope to get accomplished here at Amistad in partnership with the National Park Service...... You think any money will come our way for a project if we don't show the ability to protect the resource ? Don't think so. So as you can see, our actions reach a lot farther than just the livewell.

I think that uping the penalty to much will cause a lot of heart ache in the long run especially on the smaller tourney with no lie detector test or observers. What I think would happen is a lot more fish floating around because people would cull dead fish legal or not they would do it. On the other hand I also do not like the idea of the "bonus" weight either. It is all about education. Granted there are some of those fish caught that you almost quit fishing just to keep them alive and they die. There is no other good answer. You have to be prepared to take care of your fish.

Your right 76. They do that with .25 penalty now much less 1 lb..